5 Ordering Tips For The Best Fast Food Quesadilla Every Time

Quesadillas are a classic Mexican dish that doesn't always translate well to fast food, in spite of how quick and easy they are to cook. Even people like myself who order quesadillas from restaurants like Taco Bell or Chipotle can admit that they're often a little disappointing. But there are a few requests you can make when ordering that will improve the overall eating experience.

Several tips focus on flavors to add. Fast food quesadillas can, but don't have to be, as simple as meat and cheese. The toppings and sauces available for other menu items provide a sneak peek at what can be added inside a quesadilla, within reason. And with more than just two flavors inside, you may want to mix everything together as well.

The best fast food quesadillas are about more than whatever you can stuff inside, though. Some diners find that their favorites taste better when cooked for a little bit longer. At least one popular chain even has a specific term for this request. If you're worried about inconveniencing staff with too many added steps, the final tip actually removes a step from the usual process.

Some people associate Mexican food with spiciness, but standard fast food quesadillas often feature none at all. Customers always have the opportunity to add hot sauce to an item they've been served, be it the restaurant's hot sauces or their own at home, but ask for hot sauce inside the quesadilla for improved flavor.

Putting hot sauce inside offers a better melding of flavors than just dripping it on top. It's also better than adding a few drips inside a recent bite into the quesadilla. Allowing sauce to blend with the cheese as it melts and meat as it heats brings everything to the same temperature and lets each ingredient's notes interact for longer before you eat. If the quesadilla is cooked long enough (more on that later), the sauce may even reduce somewhat, concentrating its flavor.

However infinitely varied in both heat and flavor profiles, you can add more to a fast food quesadilla than just a few dashes of hot sauce. Other potential additions contribute not just flavor and potentially heat, but texture and even nutrition.

The toppings at a Mexican fast food restaurant are ripe with opportunities for filling a quesadilla. Custom add-ons are an easy Taco Bell quesadilla upgrade for instance. The chain's online ordering offers onions, tomatoes, jalapeños, beans, rice, chipotle bacon, pico de gallo, and many more as potential inclusions at the click of a button.

It's not just Taco Bell either. Other Mexican fast food or fast casual chains offer customizable quesadillas, sometimes also as simple as checking some boxes online. Of course, they can all be directly requested of an employee in person. There is, however, one thing worth considering before piling on the fillings.

A quesadilla isn't the sturdiest dish, especially fast food examples like Taco Bell or Chipotle, which can come out a bit floppy (for want of a better word). Too many add-ons, especially heavy items like second proteins or watery ones like tomatoes, could make the quesadilla too messy and unwieldy to hold. Consider limiting yourself to just a few additional items, or eat a fully loaded one with a knife and fork.

This next ordering tip is lackluster with a standard cheese-and-meat quesadilla. But if you request two or three add-ons (or more), ask the staff to mix all the ingredients together before folding and cooking the quesadilla. This is simply so that every bite you take contains every ingredient inside the quesadilla.

Because fast food can be a hectic environment, your requested toppings may not be so neatly added to the quesadilla in progress. This could lead to concentrations of ingredients on one side of the dish, with almost none of it on the other. Think of a poorly wrapped burrito that might have all the meat in one corner and all the pico de gallo in another. Don't let that happen to your custom quesadilla! 

Mixing everything together prior to cooking means a pleasantly balanced quesadilla bite every time and eliminates the risk of getting a mouthful of rice with no cheese or chicken. Just because it's fast food doesn't mean you should ignore the meal's finer details.

The texture of fast food quesadillas can often be somewhat lacking. Taco Bell, for example, came last in our ranking of fast food quesadillas in part because of its limp, almost soggy consistency. There is, however, one way to significantly improve examples like these, and in this restaurant's case they have a specific term for it.

Requesting it double grilled is the Taco Bell quesadilla hack you need to try. Making this ask in app or in person will tell staff that you want it cooked twice as long, with the result being crispier tortillas and meltier cheese. This tip gives the Taco Bell quesadilla some needed firmness, but there's no reason you can't consider it at other chains, even if they might not know what "double grilled" means. You can also ask for it well done or simply request that they cook it a little longer.

If at this point you're feeling self conscious about the extra steps you requested for your quesadilla, rest easy knowing that the last one makes employees' jobs a bit shorter for once. Fast food restaurants often pre-slice quesadillas before serving because they're easier to eat that way. Consider asking for your next one unsliced, for good reason.

Slicing a quesadilla is like slicing any other freshly cooked food. It might be easier to eat, but it also lets heat escape, cooling the whole dish much faster than if it wasn't sliced. Ordering it unsliced will reduce heat loss while the item is waiting to be handed to you, and if applicable, while you take it home to eat. Requesting an uncut quesadilla also frees you to cut it yourself when home. My experience has shown that fast food workers don't always cut quesadillas into even triangles. The middle slices may even be closer to strips than triangles. Doing it yourself lets you get even-sized and more easily handled slices.